What The Hell Am I Doing Here?
by ImNoGoodWithUsernames
Summary: Highschool AU/ All human Bonnie and Kai are in high school together, they get paired together in class and Kai has a crush, but he's also got bigger problems to worry about than concealing his feelings for Bonnie Bennet. Namely, Damon Salvatore, who haunts his school life, and his father, who haunts his home life. How will it all turn out? Read and find out...


AN: What's up everyone, it's been a minute, huh?

Rating: T

Pairing: Bonnie/Kai

Song Inspiration: Creep by Radiohead

Background: Highschool AU/ All human

'Abombination', 'freak', 'loser', 'creep', 'weirdo' Kai has heard it all before: from his peers, his classmates, but mostly his own father. Kai Parker never cared for many of the kids in his high school, apart from his small group of friends. That suddenly changes when he's paired with one Bonnie Bennet as his lab partner. Now Kai is falling the girl; the only problem is he's a loser and she's an angel.

Honestly y'all, Kai is VERY OOC in this- idk the prompt just came to me and I went with it because I haven't written in so long. For some reason, emotional, supportive big brother Kai is what is coming out right now- hope you enjoy it anyway! TW for child abuse.

* * *

"You're nothing, but a pathetic freak, boy! You did this on purpose, admit it!"

There was no use responding; his father was going on yet another tirade, this time it was because he'd knocked over a can of paint on the back porch. He'd tried to clean it before his father found out, but he'd been caught in the middle of trying to scrub the stains. He tried in vain to explain, but his father had instantly jumped into a verbal assault then knocked him over for good measure. Hearing the noise, Jo came out and told their father off before bending down to help her brother back up. For all his anger and wickedness Joshua had never lifted his hand to Jo, sure he cursed and fussed and yelled, but he left it at that. Joshua grumbled before returning to the house, but not before hurling another slew of insults at both of his children.

"Are you okay?" Jo said bending over to help her brother back onto his feet.

"Yea, I'm fine"

"You're not fine!" she said tears in her eyes, voice cracking from emotion.

"Please, Jo. Just...don't. I can't hold your pain too. Just...help me clean this up" Kai said dusting off his pants and wincing from the effort.

Jo looked at her brother as she wiped her eyes.

"Yea, yea sure."

They stayed together on the porch for the rest of the day and better portion of the night cleaning up the mess.

* * *

Kai's home life feels unbearable, when he's not holed up in his room avoiding his father or watching over his siblings, he's either at the mall with the few friends he has or he's at school. You'd think with seven brothers and sisters his father would find a better way to occupy his time than harassing his oldest, but the scars on his back prove otherwise. Kai doesn't mind it though, well he does, but he knows if it's not him it will be one of his younger siblings and despite his general disinterest in his family he can't actually stomach the idea of his siblings dealing with his father's abuse to the extent he does. Kai has always been strong and he'd been enduring his father longer than anyone else.

He can recall once coming home to hear his then youngest brother screaming from the kitchen, after running towards the sound he found his father raising his hand to Joey, who was no more than five at the time, and he immediately wedged himself between the both of them, much to the anger of his father. Joshua attempted to continue his assault, but Kai pulled a pencil from his pocket and jammed it into his father's leg. "Do whatever you want to me, but leave the rest of them alone. If you ever so much as lay a hand on any one of them I promise you it will be the last thing you ever do." The look in his eyes must have been menacing because he could have sworn he saw fear dance across his father face before being replaced by his usual mask of anger.

As the older man grabbed the wound Kai told his brother to go upstairs to his room and wait until older sister, Jo, got back. Kai knew he'd be worse off after this interaction, but something must have stuck because since that day Joshua had gotten angrier and louder, but he never raised his hands to any of his children except for Malachai. It had been that way ever since then, every time one of the younger kids got in trouble Kai would cause a distraction and end up bearing the brunt of his father's anger. It meant his father hated him more than the rest, but it also meant his siblings were spared.

* * *

"Kai you have got to stop! Please! Look at you! You're covered in bruises!" his sister was screaming as she stood in the doorway to his room.

"And what?" he barked back "You'd rather Joey look like this? Huh? or Lucas?" he says referencing their youngest sibling who was only two years old. "He wouldn't be able to take it!"

She doesn't flinch at his anger, Kai may bark loud, but he was far too afraid of being anything like his father to ever raise his hand to his sister. "and you can?" her voice dropped and she looked down at the ground before crossing the threshold into his room "Kai, I spend all my time worrying about you, your body is black and blue..."

He looks up to see she's got a damp towel in one hand and a first aid kit in the other.

"I know you worry, but what else can I do? I'd rather it be me instead of them."

"You're right...I just..." she trailed off at the end. It didn't matter though, Kai knew what she was thinking, the same thing she always thought when their home life was overwhelming, they'd be 18 soon and she'd put this entire town in her rearview. He empathized with his sister, but it was more complicated than that. What would happen to his younger siblings in their absence? Of course, he wanted to get as far away from his father as possible, but he couldn't do that if it meant compromising the safety of his siblings.

As if navigating his father's violence wasn't bad enough school came with even more grief. Sure, Kai had friends, Kol, Nik, and Mason were his closest but he wasn't exactly popular. When he wasn't dodging violence at him he was dodging it at school, for whatever reason he'd come to be the football team's personal punching bag. Well, not so much the entire team, just it's star player- Damon Salvatore. Damon was as cruel as he was charming, unfortunately for Kai people seemed only to focus on Damon's good looks and charm and ignored his glaring character flaws. He wasn't sure when exactly it began, but some time after their sophomore year Damon had made him a target, he supposed it had something to do with the time he walked Damon's ex home from school, Elena Gilbert, but truth be told Kai never felt anything for Elena. Sure, she was pretty with her flowing brown hair and big, brown, doe eyes, but she seemed a bit self-centered. She was always nice enough to him whenever she spoke, but the conversation always seemed to drift back to whatever hectic event was going on in her own life. The two weren't friends but had been paired together several times for projects and they were cordial to one another between classes. They'd been working late on a chem project when Elena noticed how dark it had gotten, used to taking care of others Kai offered to walk her home. Since then it felt like Damon had it out for him, he couldn't understand Damon's territorial-ness when it came to Elena especially after all this time. That was just his luck though, tried to do the right thing and got screwed for it. The old adage must really be true, No good deed goes unpunished.

* * *

You float like a feather

In a beautiful world

I wish I was special

You're so fucking special

Being paired with Elena off and on meant he knew a little about her personal life, he knew she had two best friends- Bonnie Bennet and Caroline Forbes. Sometimes when Kai studied with Elena her friends would tag along. Caroline was nice enough, but her constant peppiness irritated him. How anyone could be that perky all the time was beyond him. He could tell she thought he was odd, but she played nice, despite whatever she thought of him personally she always smiled at him and made small talk when they shared company. Kai appreciated the effort she made he knew he was somewhat known as a weirdo by his classmates.

Then there was Bonnie, she didn't share Caroline's eternal giddiness nor Elena's conceit. The Bennet girl had a personality all her own and Kai respected her ability to hold onto herself in the presence of such dominant personalities as her friends. Kai liked the occasions Bonnie would hang out with Elena and him as they studied, she'd always offer him a genuine smile and ask how he was. Jo and Bonnie were friends so she'd always ask about his sister and how his family was doing, Kai was used to people asking about his siblings, everyone knew he had a big family, but Bonnie was kind and always seemed genuinely interested. She was just one of those people, she was sincere and honest. He found himself drawn to her and after spending time around her he developed a sort of crush, but it never went very far. Being the person he was he never asked her to hang out, he didn't want to push his luck, but every time he got paired with Elena he was excited by the prospect of all of them sharing space again. After his sophomore year, he didn't have classes with any of them and the extent of interaction were nods of acknowledgment between classes or at whatever school even his sister would drag him too. Bonnie was occupied with extracurriculars and didn't have much time to hang out with Jo anymore- the two maintained a friendship, but Kai wasn't privy to it. By the end of junior year, Kai didn't think of her as often as he used to, though they still exchanged pleasantries on the rare occasions when they crossed paths.

* * *

Checking his schedule Kai made his way to his third-period class, Political Economy with , room 325. It was the first week of school, his senior year, and he was already tired. He checked the seating chart and made his way to his seat. As he looked around the room he recognized almost everyone. Despite recognizing most people he didn't really have any friends in the class, oh well, he thought to himself as plopped down in his char. The bell that signaled class was beginning chimed and Kai looked to the empty space next to him, huh- that's strange, normally he sat next to someone. Most desks were made to accommodate two students, it was rare for someone to sit alone; it didn't matter anyway, at least there was more room for him to spread out this way.

Mr. Halethorne stood at the front of the class and Kai ducked into his bag to look for his school supplies as he droned on about the syllabus. Suddenly he heard the door to the room open and close. Kai paused what he was doing- whoever came in exchanged words briefly with their teacher, from underneath the desk Kai could barely make out the words "sorry' and "I promise" before the conversation ended. Then it was just the sound of footsteps that sounded like they were getting closer. Kai lifted his head from under the desk and saw a pair of white sneakers headed towards him. 'So much for having the table to myself' he thought. He felt someone sit down beside him and he gathered the rest of his things before sitting back up. To his surprise, none other than his former crush was sitting in the seat next to him. She smiled at him and winked before turning her attention to the front of the class.

"As you know, this is your senior year and so I am going to be treating you like the adults you are becoming. In this class you will only have four assignments, each worth 25% of your grade" there was a collective groan from the class."Now, now don't fret. You won't be working all alone on these assignments. You will have help. Everyone has a partner for the year and you will be graded together. Everyone turn to your neighbor and say 'hello' that will be your partner from now until May"

Kai blanched before he looked up and saw Bonnie smiling at him, her green eyes lit up in genuine happiness- she spoke first "Heya Stranger, long time no see!"

* * *

WOWOWOWOWOW I've been working on this for an embarrassingly long time! I wasn't sure when I was ever going to actually publish any of it, but I got some notifications in my email and figured there's not time like the present. Let me know what you think!


End file.
